Watching, Looking, Seeing
by Reluctant Dragon
Summary: Different people and different perspectives, but the same lession is learned. Placed Third in !Best Casey Scene! for the 2005 TMNT FanFic Awards!
1. Watching

**Watching, Looking, Seeing

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_A little one shot that I thought up while I should have been doing other things. Enjoy!

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April loved looking at them.

It was a secret of hers, a little embarrassing fascination that she hid from everyone around her. She could only imagine the utter humiliation that she would face if they found out. She'd never be able to watch them again without at least one of them noticing, and it would ruin absolutely _everything_.

She loved how they moved with the grace and ferocity of tigers, with the subtle self-confidence that was only achieved through years and years of training.

She watched as they practiced sometimes, and found that it was hard for her to keep her jaw from scraping the floor. They were four green blurs, rocketing from one end of the improvised dojo to the other, shouting out fierce cries as they honed their craft.

And none of them realized how utterly and completely beautiful they were in motion. She had tried complementing them in the past, but they had only laughed a little awkwardly and brushed the comments away. She knew what they were thinking. 'She's only saying stuff like that cause she thinks she has to.'

They were wrong.

She knew that all they saw when they looked in the mirror was something that was startlingly alien from the humans that populated their planet. They were turtles- obviously they had no place on this appearance-fixated culture, this world.

They didn't appreciate their wonderful, expressive eyes, their smooth skin, the way that their muscles moved under their skin… the fact that they were the nicest people that that she had ever met.

And that was a shame.

So she watched them, because they were too beautiful to not be watched.

If no one else would watch them, she would.

She would _gladly_.


	2. Looking

_Well, Reinbeauchaser(and everyone else who asked for another chapter), ask and you shall receive. Here is your sequel. (Thanks for making me write it!) Maybe not exactly how you imagined it, but I hope you enjoy it all the same! _

_I never in my wildest dreams thought that everyone would like this fic this much! I almost didn't post it, too...  
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_This fic is from the Movie-Verse. I think I'll let you guess who's talking.

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She really doesn't know how beautiful she is.

I mean, she's sittin' in one o' my old hockey jerseys an' socks, drinkin' coffee an' reading the paper, and she looks like a flippin' angel.

I tell her that, and she rolls them big brown eyes up at me and gives me one o' them patented, Don't-Mess-with-Me-I'm-April-O'Neil glares from under a mass of crinkly auburn hair.

'Yeah, right.' She says, and she goes right back to her paper.

She's always doing stuff like that, just letting compliments slide right offa' her. I don't know why- I mean, I ken still remember the look on her face when I first called her a babe… O' course, we were surrounded by those crazy ninjas and Raph was practically dead at the time… She had this unbelieving, sarcastic sorta' sneer on, like she couldn't believe that I was callin' her a babe. Come to think of it, maybe that wasn't exactly a good situation to be flirtin' in…

She's always snortin' or sayin' somethin' sarcastic when I call her beautiful. Says that I'm being silly, that she's not beautiful. 'Pretty maybe, but even that's a stretch.' Pfft.

For a reporter, she's awful unwilling to admit the goddamned truth.

It don't matter whether she's all done up on TV, or if she's just sittin' around in sweats and eatin' Ben n' Jerry's ice cream right outta' the container. She's _always_ gorgeous t' me.

I just like lookin' at her. I dunno what it is about her that sucks me in. I mean, Ape's like the total opposite of my last, uh, girlfriend. Skinnier, less curvy, a whole busload more sass, common sense…

But I never looked at her, _really_ looked at her, like I do April.

April… she has that kinda' presence that grabs everyone's attention the minute that she steps into a room. Lights the room like a lightbulb bein' turned on. She makes everyone she meets want to see her more, know her more, be a better man fer 'er…

An' she still denies th' fact that she's beautiful. She just doesn't look at herself the way that I do- that's gotta be her problem.

But so help me God, I will convince her, one of these days.

And if I have to keep on lookin' at her for the rest o' time fer that t' happen, I'll guess live an' die a happy man.


	3. Seeing

_Here it is- The last chapter to _Watching, Looking, Seeing. _ Hope you all enjoy it! This marks an end to my very first multi-chaptered story! That's a big landmark, you know! Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed this fic!  
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**_Kaya lizzie, Dierdre, Sassyblondxoxo, Chibi Rose Angel, Vampy, Lunar-Ninja, Misterfooch, Melodist, Reinbeauchaser, pacphys, jigsaws231, FF Demon Angel, The REAL Cheese Monkey, Ted, Tripleguess, and Shadowflame611._**

_You guys **rock**!

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**Raphael:**

He's gettin' older. I mean, I kin deny it all I want, but the evidence is still starin' me in the face every damn day. His whiskers are gettin' grey, he's lettin' Leo lead more workouts, he spends most of the day sleepin'…

It's hard, y'know? Seein' yore dad gettin' older and greyer and knowin' that one day he's gonna die and you're just gonna have t' sit by an' watch helplessly?

I don't wanna have t' _see_ that.

So I try t' ignore it, try t' pretend it ain't happnin', an' act the way that I've always acted. Piss off Leo, get drunk, piss off Leo, get in street fights, piss off Leo…

I don't spend much time at home anymore, at all. Soon as th' sun's down, man, I'm _outta_' that sewer like quickfire. Sometimes I go and hang wit' Casey, other times I just kinda' roam the rooftops, lookin' fer some punks that are just _askin'_ fer trouble. Sometimes I even find 'em.

It's better t' be on the move then t' stay in one place an' risk thinkin', knowin'. 'Cause if I do stop movin', everythin' catches up to me.

I don't want that.

Yet with every day that passes, no matter how fast I run, no matter how little I manage to see, I know that someday I'm gonna have to deal without him bein' here, and I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do it.

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End file.
